126 ELDORADO 



pond of water, formed by a cienega, about which grew 

 sufficient grass for my pony. It was closely surrounded 

 by the forest of mountain pines. There I unpacked 

 and camped, gathering plenty of dry material for a 

 fire, as I had resolved to keep it replenished during the 

 night. I felt a degree of loneliness and depression that 

 I had not previously experienced during the entire 

 journey. I had never feared the Indians, but to sleep 

 where a grizzly was liable to come into camp at any 

 moment for his supper was not a very pleasant reflec- 

 tion, and the more I thought about it, as the darkness 

 increased in the gloomy depths of the surrounding 

 forest the more likely it seemed to happen. I spread 

 my blankets and made my bed beside a big pine log 

 occasionally rising to replenish my fire. I heard, or 

 thought I heard, the crackling of dry twigs during the 

 night, and the approach of footsteps, but the morning 

 found me and the pony in. our normal condition, and 

 with a better appetite for my breakfast than I enjoved 

 for my supper.' 



After another day's travel towards the summit of 

 the Sierras, much of the way over a rough and pre- 

 cipitous road, through heavy forests of pine, we 

 camped near large bodies of snow. The day had been 

 mild, but the night was cold and cheerless. The stars 

 shone with their usual brilliancy through the clear at- 

 mosphere of this high altitude, and t he mountain 

 peaks could be seen standing out bare and white like 

 huge sentinels above the lower surrounding forests. 

 There is something, an undefinable feeling that all men 

 experience, I believe, when alone in the solitude of r 

 mountain camp ; an awe and loneliness, that ha^^dlv can 

 be expressed. What if I be taken suddenly ill or at- 



